In the past, wind power has been harnessed in widespread areas of useful work, such as transportation (sailing the oceans), fluid mechanics (14th century Dutch windmills drained delta lowlands) and food processing (grinding mills powered by windmills). In the United States, windmills have long dotted farmlands, converting wind energy to draw water from wells; and by the early 1930s windmills for electricity were in common use on such farms, largely where electricity power lines had not yet reached. Recent years has seen the establishment of commercially operated wind farms that produce electricity fed to electrical power grids.
While the conversion of the kinetic energy of wind currents to produce useful work as just mentioned, wind power has not seen the magnitude of efforts directed to develop other energy sources, such as the exploration and use of hydrocarbon fuel and nuclear power sources. However, recent years have seen increased attention and development efforts to make wind power conversion economically feasible.
The prior art is replete with wind generator motors, and there are increasing numbers of both commercial and domestic wind generators in use in this country. The technology has developed to a state of advance sophistication insofar as the mechanical and electrical designs go, but challenges remain in providing wind generators that are acceptable to society from both environmental and aesthetic concerns.
It is to this need that embodiments of the present invention are directed, providing wind power conversion for domestic and commercial applications.